Less than a day after we reported on the delay of the Play Store coming to the Chromebook Pixel(2015) and the Acer R11, it appears that the update has arrived. +Santiago Welbes original posted earlier this evening in Google + that he heard rumors of the Pixel receiving the Play Store update on the Chrome OS 53 developer channel. Then, after checking his own device, confirmed that the Play Store had in fact been added to his Chromebook Pixel.
This comes as a very pleasant surprise as rumors were beginning to arise as to why the update had been delayed. With such a huge update to Chrome OS, bug issues, hardware conflicts and security patches are always a major concern. Since Google’s announcement back in May that Android Apps where coming to Chromebooks, we have been waiting with excited anticipation for a preview on the developer channel. Initially, the Asus Flip, the Chromebook Pixel and the Acer R11 were the first three devices to receive the Play Store.
Almost a month ago the Asus Flip updated to Chrome OS 53 and was granted access to the Play Store with the expectation that the Pixel and the R11 would not be far behind. But, as the weeks passed, no update. Speculations as to what issues could have caused the delay were beginning to spread among the Chrome communities. Check out our original article here.
Where are the Android Apps for the Chromebook Pixel and Acer R11.
After posting our article yesterday, +Kevin Tofel from Google shared with us a post from the Chromium Project stating that the update had been bumped to June/July. This was just hours before the Play Store landed on the Chromebook Pixel. So, whatever the initial delay was, obviously the guys over at Google have worked it out.
For those of you running Chrome OS 53 with Android Apps, we’d love to hear about your experience. Drop us a line and let us know what you think.
Thanks again to +Santiago Welbes for being on top of the update.
You can check out his subsequent article over at ChromeStory.